Are We Back in the Garden? Part 2
September 19, 2004
Dear Friends,
As we contemplate the question “Are we back in the Garden?”, there is no better place to start at the beginning. Let’s ask ourselves the basic question “What does the Garden represent?” Most people I know would immediately answer that question rather confidently with “The Kingdom of God.” If we take time to look at the Biblical metaphor of the Garden of Eden, perhaps we may arrive at a slightly different conclusion. I would suggest that the metaphor for the Garden, at least in this initial type and shadow, represents the reconciled condition that believers are placed in when they come into Christ through belief and baptism.
Again, before we get into the details, let us look at the big picture. IF the Garden represents the Kingdom of God in its final manifestation here on earth, we have several difficulties. First, Adam was not immortal. He could die and, in fact, did die. Second, Adam was tempted and sinned while in the Garden. Third, Adam had an opportunity to fail and thus be cast from the Garden. Fourth, the serpent was in the Garden. Now from these few facts alone we have to wonder if we can equate the Garden of Eden with the Kingdom of God in its ultimate sense. This does not sound at all like what the Bible teaches concerning the Kingdom of God. In the Kingdom of God: we will be immortal, we will not sin any longer, we will not be cast out, we will no longer be subject to the flesh (temptation).
The Bible tells us that Adam was created “very good.” We don’t know all of the implications of this verse, but we certainly know a few. First, Adam was not subject to death. This does not mean he could not die (immortality), but that he would not die IF he did not sin. There is a subtle but important difference here. In other words, Adam physically possessed eternal life BUT he could die. His continuing to live not subject to death — a complete and unmerited gift from God — was conditional upon obedience. Adam didn’t earn eternal life, it was a gift, but he could (and did!) lose it.
Similarly, there are many, many verses in the Bible that say that we have eternal life in Christ. The Apostle John, who focuses his Gospel on spiritual things, uses the phrase 17 times in the present tense. (3:15,16, 36; 4:14,36; 5:24,39; 6:27,40,47,54; 68; 10:28; 12:25,50 17:2,3). From John’s perspective, like the kingdom of God, eternal life is a present possession. It is a state the believer comes into in the eyes of God rather than a physical reality. Likewise, in the eyes of God, the believer has eternal life which is why we can speak of believers as being asleep in Christ when they are physically dead (1 Cor. 15:18). Jesus alludes to this in Mark 12:26-27 when he states to the Saducees concerning the resurrection, “And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.” We know that Abraham was physically dead — unconscious and awaiting the resurrection — from many scriptures including Hebrews 11, yet in the eyes of God — the giver of life — he was alive. It is important to note that Jesus was arguing in this passage about resurrection from the dead, not Abraham currently possessing immortality.
It makes perfect sense to us when we realize that baptism into Christ lifts from us the sentence passed upon mankind in the Garden and therefore conditionally grants us life beyond the sentence of death. If we do not practice “lawlessness” and we “walk in the light” (1 John), our provisional state of eternal life will be made into the physical reality of immortality at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
So we see then that the teaching of the Scripture is that once the effects of Adam’s transgression are removed from us when we believe and are baptized, we are metaphorically back in the Garden. We are like the pre-fall Adam who possessed eternal life. We do not have it physically as he did, but we have it spiritually. If we continue to walk in the light, at the coming of His son in his Kingdom, we will change as it tells us in 1 Cor. 15 (the resurrection chapter) — “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (v. 53)
Ephesians 2:1, 4-7 makes it clear. “You he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins….But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Revised Standard)
Next week, Lord willing, we will tackle our second aspect above – Adam being tempted while in the Garden.
Have a great week!
